How to Realistically value your home?

One of the most important decisions when selling a property is setting an accurate sales price. Set it too low and you could lose equity, to high and you could seriously limit the number of viewings and offers received.

When multiple estate agents provide a range of valuations this can cause confusion, some may under value your property to help attract a quick sale while others may over inflate the value to entice your instruction  knowing you will likely have to reduce the asking price at a later stage.

Most people have a view of what their property is worth, but it’s useful to understand how to accurately value your property, enabling you to make an informed decision when discussing with an agent.

There are a number of internet based property valuation tools available, but experience shows their accuracy can vary significantly.  If your property is located within a recent housing estate they may be more accurate, but we would always recommend validating the results.

Research is key to accurately valuing a property.  With the amount of information freely available via the internet on websites such as Rightmove, Zoopla and mouseprice it is usually relatively easy to create a list of properties that have recently sold or currently for sale similar to yours.  

Ideally you want to include a number of sold properties to ensure you are not under valuing due to a single seller who was looking for a quick sale, or over valuing basing all figures on properties for sale which may be over priced. 

Step 1. Select a minimum of three comparable properties (ideally 5) within close proximity to the one being valued, where possible on the same road or closest comparable location. 

Location has a major impact on property value so it is key to compare the closest possible properties, supply and demand within an area can also have a significant impact as can access to major transport links and aspect of the property.

Step 2.Create a list of the properties including columns for the most important attributes such as;

• Price Sold.
• Date sold.
• Location (proximity to your property or similar valued street).
• Size (example number of bedrooms and reception rooms).
• Garden / Land.
• Garage (single, double, etc)
• Other Features (Conservatory, outhouse etc)
• Positive or Negative features (Highly appointed / In need of modernisation)
• Square Meter size of your property to compare (length x breadth of all rooms added together)  
• +/- to value based on current property market (increases / decreases), based on date sold.
• A column for Higher / Lower Specification than My Property.

At first appearance this look like a lot of work to value your property, but once you start it quickly becomes quite interesting comparing local properties, creating your own judgement on the value of what is likely your most significant asset.

To obtain market information on local house prices you can use websites such as Home Owners Alliance to identify trends and take into account the dates properties were sold to create an accurate figure.

If your property has a number of unique attributes based on location, period / style or size, this can be more difficult to accurately value, in which case an agents experience will help guide create a valuation and suggest the most  appropriate sales model such as listing as Offers-Over, scheduling open-days to receiving multiple bids or auction if a lot of interest is expected. An agent should be able to advise you as and when these sales methods would in their opinion be appropriate.

In all circumstance we would highly recommend you take professional advice from multiple local estate agents when valuing your property, but it’s an interesting exercise to understand how to value your property enabling you to make an informed decison.

If you would like a Free of Charge, No Obligation valuation for your property,  Jump-Pad would be delighted to visit your home to provide a  property vauation and detailed local analysis.